Today's the third day of my life with Microsoft's newest Windows operating system, Vista. I purchased a new computer from Dell in order to replace an ailing development machine and decided to also throw Vista into the mix of integrating a new desktop into the network.

There are a few things that are striking:

  • Aero, the new "look & feel" for Vista, is very pretty - so pretty that when I look at the old G3 with Mac OS X Panther (10.3, the latest is 10.5) on it sitting off to my left, I realize where Windows got their inspiration for their resizable icons, animated window expansions, and backgrounds. It's still impressive to look at. "Windows Flip 3D" is an overly clever implementation of a much needed way to see all the open applications. Makes me want to open lots of applications just to see them in half-profile.
  • Installing applications is aggravating. Who knows when User Access Control or, as my brother puts it, the Department of Desktop Secruity, will come knocking, forcing the beautifully coifed but otherwise helpless onto the vast expanse of the internet where mostly Vista haters reside to find an answer. The much maligned Secure Desktop of the "Cancel or Allow" fame (it's "continue or cancel" really) blinks the monitor and turns everything else but the dialog box dark. That's like having someone slap you in the face randomly while having a pleasant conversation. It can be hobbled, but as people will lament, it takes away the secure desktop.
  • The sounds are soft and in the background, "part of the wallpaper" as they intended. They spent a lot of time and money on it, and I can barely hear the audio alerts. When I do, I'm in a peaceful trance or attempting to be really quiet and still so I can hear the alerts. Peaceful trance or audio equivalent of a deer in headlights - I dunno, one of the two.
  • Things XP just does, like finding printers, seems missing. It took me two tries and another visit into the meat-smelling wilds of the internet to find Microsoft fanbois in order to have Vista recognize the HP LaserJet 1100 attached to another networked computer.
  • Unzipping folders takes hours, literally. It's either a Vista bug or the Norton anti-virus checking each bit as its extracted. I haven't been able to emperically isolate who's screwed up here. Unzipping Eclipse (120mb zip) took 6 hours. Yes, hours. I went to bed.
  • The Dell Dimension 9200 is, amazingly, "out of the picture" - it's quiet and just performs. The operating system is the star here. That's refreshing to not feel like a patchwork of hardware's a hurdle. With that said, Dell peppers and customizes the OEM OS with enough tchotchkes and unnecssary and useless trial apps that, if I didn't know it was Vista, I'd swear it was a sponsored NASCAR jacket. I'm seriously considering reinstalling the OS just to get rid of Dell's preinstalled mung.

This is day three of the rest of my life: Cancel or Allow?